Am I More Than You Bargained for Yet?
by rainingroses05
Summary: In which Lance has a bad plan, one thing leads to another, and the Paladins end up stuck in their lions on an unfamiliar planet. Oh, and bonding. Lots of bonding. Or, Kissing doesn't require thinking.


Figment Daily Prompt #1

"Whose idea was it to steal that pirate ship anyway?" Lance shouts over the crashing sounds coming from all over the castle.

Keith grunts as he is slammed against the wall by a particularly nasty hit from a Galra soldier. "It was your dumb-"

" _For the last time, Lance_ , it was _not_ a pirate ship!" Pidge yells, cutting Keith off.

Lance slams his bayard into an approaching soldier, stumbling on the slippery castle floor. "Well, you're supposed to be the smart one!" he retorts. "Shouldn't you have known that us having it would help them get to us?"

"I was a little busy worrying about-"

"And it was _totally_ a pirate ship! The pilot has an _eye patch!"_

"Eye patch doesn't equal pirate, idiot. And does it even matter?" Keith snaps.

"Guys!" Hunk and Shiro shout in near perfect unison.

"We have to stop them from getting to the control center," Shiro continues, his voice strained, as more Galra soldiers approach.

Lance whirls around as another enemy approaches from behind, smashing his head against the wall. He lets out a pained yell, managing to force the soldier back and knock them out with his bayard.

Light gleams off the walls into his eyes, and he winces.

 _Where exactly is the control room?_

The hallway is sort of… spinning, the floor rising under his feet and the walls leaning in towards each other, which is probably not good, especially considering the number of blows to the head he's endured during this fight.

A moment later, Lance realizes the floor is not, in fact, moving up; he's just moving _down._

Keith grabs Lance's arm just as his palms graze the floor, dragging him through the narrow hall.

There's a _whirl_ of doors and lights and hallways before they stop outside the control room that leaves Lance feeling sick and leaning heavily on Keith.

Once he realizes what he's doing, Lance immediately struggles to stand on his own two feet, hating the feeling of relying on Keith, of all people, to help him. The fact that they're surrounded by Galras is also a good source of motivation to not collapse.

"Can you stand?" Keith hisses out of the side of his mouth, turning to face the approaching soldiers.

Lance feels his face heat up. "Of course-" he begins, only to be cut off by a pained noise from Keith as a Galra soldier leaps forward and hits him across the face.

Keith stumbles backwards, letting go of Lance's arm as his feet are swept out from him, and Lance falls forward, smashing into another Galra.

The enemy soldier shoves him backwards, sending him tumbling to the floor.

Lance wakes up to Keith hovering over him. He lifts one hand and pushes him back slightly. "Too close, dude," he mutters but not before he notices how much Keith's eyes look like the view of space from the castle, dark and purple, filled with little splashes of light.

 _What?_

"Shut up," Keith snaps, his face flushing slightly as he moves back.

Lance blinks several times, his eyes adjusting to the light, and suddenly notices the splotchy purple bruise across the other boy's face. "Whoa, what happened to you?"

"Oh, maybe, you know, the Galra invasion that happened less than half an hour ago. But I could be wrong."

Lance ignores Keith's sarcasm, moving on to his next question. "So… where are we?" He tries to sit up before giving up and leaning back against the… whatever is under his head. A pillow? Why would Keith have a pillow in his lion?

"In my lion, on some foreign planet. Everyone's trapped in their lions until we can figure out if the air is safe, which is going to take until tomorrow morning." Keith stands up and presses several buttons on the control panel. The intercom crackles to life. "Lance is awake. We're both fine."

Shiro's voice comes back over the intercom. "Alright. Now both of you get some rest."

"Great. So the Galra won, _and_ I'm stuck with you until morning. Where's my lion?" Lance grumbles, turning onto his side and discovering that the soft object he's been resting on is Keith's jacket.

 _Oh, God._

"Pidge gave it some command to follow the others." Keith sits down on the floor again.

The two boys stare at each other for a moment before Keith turns away, coughing slightly and- _is he blushing?_

"You're welcome, by the way," he says as he lies down on the floor, tucking his arms under his head.

He's close enough that Lance can see the think scars running across the backs of his hands.

"For what?" Lance looks away, focusing on the ceiling.

"Just saving your life, idiot!"

"I'm the idiot? You're the one who tried to take on, like, a hundred Galra soldiers. You could have ended up with a lot worse than a bruise!"

"So, does that mean you were _worried_ about me?" Keith smirks and looks up at the ceiling.

Lance feels his face flush. "What? _You_ were the one trying to save _my_ life, so obviously _you_ were worried about _me."_

Keith sputters out something Lance can't understand but just seeing him so flustered is enough to make him laugh.

It's actually kind of… _cute_.

 _Whoa._

 _No. Nope. Not cute._

He's been cooped up in this lion for too long.

"Stop laughing and go to bed," Keith snaps. He turns off the lights with the push of a button.

Lance sighs and closes his eyes, still snickering slightly under his breath.

His laughing dies down a moment later, leaving them in a peaceful silence.

"Do you think the lions, like, sleep? And like, dream or whatever?"

" _Lance_."

"Sorry, sorry."

A few minutes pass quietly.

Lance opens his eyes and finds Keith staring straight at him- and is it his imagination, or is they closer together than before?

"Um…"

"Uh…"

"Er, goodnight."

"Yeah, uh, 'night."

Both boys shut their eyes again.

Keith exhales, and Lance feels his breath on his face.

Ok, they were _not_ this close before.

Lance opens his eyes.

"Can't sleep?" Keith asks, his voice unusually soft.

"No, uh, no, I'm fine," Lance mumbles.

Something clicks and hums inside the Red Lion. Keith moves slightly in the darkness and makes a sudden pained noise.

Eyes open.

"Uh, you okay?" Lance whispers.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," Keith says, clutching his side.

Eyes closed.

"Do you think I have a concussion?"

" _Lance. Sleep_."

"I can't sleep," Lance admits, scratching his arm.

"Me either." Keith rests his head against his hands.

Lance looks up. "Do you wanna, like… play a game… or something?" he asks, feeling slightly stupid.

A rain droplet hits the front window of the lion.

"If you have a concussion, you're not supposed to do anything that requires a lot of thinking," Keith points out.

Lance sighs, pressing his face into the makeshift pillow. It smells like Keith, he realizes, before quickly forcing the thought out of his mind.

Keith opens his mouth slightly like he's about to say something, turning red and appearing to abandon the idea of speaking.

Before Lance has a chance to ask what the heck he's thinking about, Keith jerks forward and presses their lips together.

Whoa.

 _Whoa._

The first thing Lance thinks is that Keith's lips are softer than he would have thought.

The next thing he thinks is that kissing Keith is different from kissing any of the girls he's dated, much different, although he can't pinpoint exactly _how._

And… it's actually _nice_.

Then Keith tilts his head slightly and smashes their foreheads together.

"Jeez, have you ever kissed anyone before?"

Keith opens his mouth to protest, his face bright red, before sighing in defeat. "No…" He rubs the back of his neck. "That was stupid," he mutters.

"Yeah," Lance agrees. Then he leans in and kisses him again. "I'm a much better kisser than you."


End file.
